by Jonathon Hagger (17/6/23)
Above: New Zealand’s Football Ferns – co-hosts for the World Cup. Photo: Inside The Games.
The New Zealand Football Ferns are a team in transition. Following the retirement of many long-standing high-quality players in the past few years, New Zealand Football has poured its energy into developing a sustainable player development program with a focus on development of players on home soil.
The core of the Football Ferns squad are sprinkled across top-quality leagues around the globe achieving great success. Getting those successes from abroad to translate into success for the national team is proving to be a tough challenge.
The Ferns bring an exciting mix of new talent in developing players such as Jacqui Hand and Michaela Foster whose flair will be coupled with the strength of world-class players such as Ali Riley (Angel City, USA), Rebekah Stott (Brighton & Hove Albion, England) and Ria Percival (Tottenham Hotspur, England).
Hosting the World Cup on home soil will provide extra impetus to the Ferns to be competitive and to achieve greatness. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the sport of women’s football to establish itself as the sport of choice among young players and the Ferns having success on the pitch is crucial to creating that legacy.
Squad
Still to be announced.
Head Coach
Jitka Klimková has an excellent history of coaching teams in the past but she has yet to find the right chemistry with getting the best out of the Ferns. With a coaching record of three wins, four draws and fifteen losses since being appointed as head coach in October 2021 her start hasn’t been all that auspicious.
Credit must be given to Klimková as she took over the team after a long period of turmoil that resulted in the retirement of many top players, so she has been working on rebuilding the squad and encouraging them to play her style of football. The Football Ferns enter the World Cup off the back of their longest-ever pre-campaign preparation camp and hopefully, the time spent together will yield results.
World Cup History
New Zealand qualified for the first-ever World Cup in 1991 and it quickly became evident the gap between the skills and abilities of the Ferns compared to the more professional European clubs. With a move by Football Australia to join the Asian Federation for qualifying, New Zealand were able to capitalize on the easier path to qualification. They subsequently returned to the World Cup in 2007 and have qualified for each of the tournaments since then – 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023.
How they qualified
As co-host of the 2023 World Cup, New Zealand, along with Australia, gained automatic qualification to the World Cup.
Strengths
Playing at home in front of friends and family will be a huge motivator for the team. With a majority of the Ferns squad being dispersed across the globe and most international matches being played outside of New Zealand, this will be a chance for players to reconnect with their points of origin. With half the members of the squad having less than 20 caps for the Ferns they can take a no-fear football approach into each match.
Development Areas
The Ferns have been through a goal-scoring drought in the last few years. The team are able to create opportunities, but quality of the shots has been lacking.
Key Players
Jacqui Hand – forward. Hand could be the key that opens the door to the Ferns scoring goals. She is quick, nimble, and very fast on her feet. If the attacker receives quality support from her midfield players she will be a goal-scoring threat.
Olivia (Liv) Chance – midfield. Chance is a veteran of the sport and a natural-born leader. She is super quick when progressing the ball on the flanks and demonstrated in the two matches against the USWNT that she can match it with the very best. The younger players in the team will do well to replicate her style of play.
Meikayla Moore – defender. Having secured the league championship with her team Glasgow City in the Scottish Women’s Premier League, Moore is in fantastic form. She is unafraid to get into a physical challenge and is afraid of no one. Her defensive abilities will be crucial to the Ferns achieving success.
One to watch
Malia Steinmetz – midfield. Playing out of the Western Sydney Wanderers A-League team stable of players, Steinmetz is a star on the rise. In recent matches representing New Zealand, the midfielder has shown a strong heart and spine of steel in closing down opposition teams’ offensive pushes. If Steinmetz can continue to improve her succesful pass completions she will open up attacking channels through the midfield allowing the team to press forward.
Success would be
Success for the Football Ferns would be for the team to progress out of their pool. New Zealand’s current form doesn’t make for great reading leading up to the World Cup with losses against high-quality opposition. However, those matches were played on short time frames for team camps resulting in less than ideal preparation time. Following a long period of build-up to the World Cup, the Ferns will be fired up and ready to go. All opposition teams will need to be very wary as New Zealand can compete with anyone when it’s their day.
Prediction
The Football Ferns will finish second in their pool, which would likely hand them a last-sixteen game with Japan, with the Japanese likely to be too strong.
Group A Fixtures
20th July – Norway, Eden Park, Auckland.
25th July – Philippines, Sky Stadium, Wellington.
30th July – Switzerland, Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin.
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